Insights: An Inquiry-Based Elementary School Science Curriculum (Second and Third Grade Modules)
By Karen Worth and the Insights Elementary Project Staff
Insights is an innovative, inquiry-based, hands-on science curriculum for elementary school students. The full curriculum consists of 21 modules that represent a balance of life, earth, and physical science. The modules also highlight six major science themes: systems, change, structure and function, diversity, cause and effect, and energy. Each module is made up of a carefully sequenced, age-appropriate set of hands-on experiences designed to be directly relevant to the child. The modules are designed for use in self-contained elementary classrooms, and can be used as a core curriculum to be expanded as necessary, or individually in conjunction with existing programs.
Contact Info: Karen Worth (1-800-225-4276 x2428)
Project Website: Insights: An Elementary Hands-on Inquiry Science Curriculum
Published by: Kendall/Hunt Publishing Order Info
Rocks, Minerals, and Soils: In this module, students collect, categorize, and describe various materials they find in and on the ground. They extend their own personal classification systems by using geologists’ tests to describe rocks, minerals, and soils in new ways. Finally, students use what they know about the properties of these materials to think about how each can be used for building or in landscaping.
Price: Grades 2–3
(2nd Ed.)
Lifting Heavy Things: As this module begins, students are asked to think about what it means to make work easier. They then try out experiences and challenges using levers, planes and pulleys, and explore the advantages and disadvantages of each. At the end of the module, they are challenged to analyze a construction site that has no power and decide which simple machine is most appropriate for each task.
Price: Grades 2–3
(2nd Ed.)
Habitats: Students examine their own basic needs and the needs of other living things around them. They explore the school building and neighborhood to determine how these areas meet their own needs. They then study some of the small creatures they find on the school grounds and the physical factors that affect these creatures' habitats. Finally, students "invite" an organism into the classroom for several days of close observation to determine what behaviors and adaptations of the organism allow it to meet its needs in its particular habitat.
Price: Grades 2–3
(2nd Ed.)
Liquids: Students explore the unique characteristics of liquids, compare different liquids, and explore how solids and liquids interact with each other. They discover how three liquids-corn syrup, oil and water-behave in isolation and how these liquids behave when mixed. Students then investigate floating and sinking and some of the variables that affect how solid objects behave in liquids of different density.
Price: Grades 2–3
(2nd Ed.)
Sound: This module helps students become more aware of the nature of sound and of the diversity and abundance of sounds around them. They begin by listening to sounds on tape. They then make their own sounds with their bodies, with drums, and with other instruments-exploring vibration, pitch and volume, and the transmission of sounds. Throughout the module, students are also asked to compare the qualitative characteristics of the sounds they hear.
Price: Grades 2–3
(2nd Ed.)
Growing Things: This module starts with a tour of the school neighborhood, giving students a chance to observe the variety of plants growing around them. Then, as students grow their own plants, they observe the development of germinating seeds, measure and record growth and change, and design and conduct simple experiments to explore the factors that affect plant growth.
Price: Grades 2–3
(2nd Ed.)